Now before you think I'm about review a cookbook written by Hannibal Lecter, don't worry there won't be a fava bean to be found in any of the recipes I used tonight. Instead, this post is going to be all about cooking recipes I found on various friends sites that helped me clean out my fridge and pantry!
We'll start with the pork chop, potatoes and mushrooms I had for dinner! I had one pork chop in the freezer and I wanted to make something to go with it and use up the three yukon gold potatoes and the half a container of white button mushrooms I had lurking around the bottom of the fridge.
So, I headed over to Je Mange la Ville where I know the best pork recipes can be found and she definitely didn't disappoint me with her thick cut porkchops: brined, seared and finished in the oven. While the pork chop was brining, I remembered a recipe I had bookmarked over at Sara of I Like to Cook for sauteed mushrooms with Italian dressing. I served these alongside some simple roasted potatoes and the wonderful porkchop. Even though the weather outside says summer this meal said fall!
While I ate dinner and watched a great old Frank Sinatra and Debbie Reynolds movie called The Tender Trap, the Rocky Road Bars that Mary over at Alpineberry posted about this morning were baking in the oven so I could take them into work tomorrow. I can't wait to try these and they look scrumptious.
For dessert, since the oven was on and was the right temperature, I baked an apple I had left over from making Harvest Apple Bread and used the last of the spiced oatmeal I made up for a recipe I was testing last week. It was really good but no where near as good as the piece of pumpkin bread my personal trainer, C made and brought into the club today. It was the moistest and lightest pumpkin bread I think I've tasted (and I'm not just saying that because she reads my blog and will kick my arse at my next workout) but because it was.
All I can say is she better have a copy of that recipe for me the next time I see her because my neighbor just gave me a bunch of small pumpkins tonight and I know the first recipe I'm making with them...
